MUÑOZ l MUSICIANS REACT TO MESSAGES IN HAIKU
William Mosley, 40, a longtime fan of Muñoz’s who had driven from Pittsburg to attend the ‘‘ twenty haiku’’ CD release party last month at the San Jose Museum of Art. ‘‘ It’s real. It’s fresh. He’s out of the box and he gets out of his own head.’’
Next up for Muñoz is writing a book for biracial children of European and Asian descent, who are also known as ‘‘ hapa.’’ Muñoz is half Pacific Islander and half European (PortugueseEnglish-Irish) and struggled with coming to terms with his own identity.
‘‘ The content itself is about being biracial and straddling two cultural lines,’’ says Muñoz. He plans to call the book ‘‘ I Am the Glue.’’ ‘‘ When you are hapa, you can be the glue between cultures and people because you can identify with a lot of people.’’
The album ‘‘ twenty haiku’’ also expresses this EuroAsian thinking. Besides the 5- 7-5 syllable scheme, he describes his haiku as ‘‘ radically non-traditional.’’ For example, there are titles on his haiku where traditionally there are none.
‘‘ It’s fantastic that he’s taking haiku to a higher plane,’’ said Sharon Kamimoto, his second-grade teacher from Parkview Elementary School in San Jose, who taught him the art form years ago.
His poetry is frugal, but each word is chosen with decisiveness, expressing a fury of emotions. The whole album is less than five minutes long.
Its brevity, says Julie Cardenas, 24, is something her generation could easily eat up.
‘‘ Its simplicity — like ring tones — delivers a message,’’ said Cardenas, a San Jose Museum of Art visitor service representative. ‘‘ It’s seriously original.’’
Each haiku is accompanied by the work of one musician, such as jazz drummer Scott Amendola or Asian American Orchestra leader Anthony Brown. Muñoz, who reads the haiku on the album, gave each instrumentalist only two takes to convey in music what each poem was about.
‘‘ He says, ‘ I’m going to throw a curve at you. I’ll give you a couple of seconds to look at’ the haiku, ‘ then I’m going to take the paper away, then you’ll hear the actual haiku in your headphones and I want you to react to it,’ ’’ recalled Oakland mouth drummer and vocalist David Worm.
Along with mouth drumming ( which is similar to beat-boxing) other sounds on the album include drums, synthesizer, guitar, bass, oboe and theremin, an electronic instrument often used for horror soundtracks, which is played by moving the hands in relation to two antennas.
‘‘ PC put it together in this wonderful kaleidoscope of sensual stimulants that really get you and really pull you in,’’ Worm said. ‘‘ You’re all wondering what we’re going to do next.’’ Contact Marian Liu at mliu@mercurynews.com or ( 408) 920-2740. Fax ( 408) 271-3786. Read her music blog at www.mercextra.com/aei.